It’s winter again! Cold and snowy, which inspires todays post about how I deal with winter in the Middle Ages.

The set of clothing stays much the same throughout the year. During the wintertime, I wear the same linen shirt, woolen dress and woolen overdress. What really matters in keeping me warm is what I wear on my head and my feet.

On my head

A head left uncovered can make you cold quickly. In the wintertime I wear the same veils as in the summer, but those layers being linen or hemp don’t really help a lot with the cold. This is why you need a warm hood. Made out of wool, lined with wool or perhaps the warmest of all, fur. It is a hat, a scarf and a little cape all in one! If the cape is cut so that it reaches over the shoulders, it stands in for a jacket really well. Only when it gets really cold (around -20C) you start feeling a need for something else to keep you warm.

As you can see, I have a hat – and women did wear those too – but for me, a hood is just so much better.

On my feet

The cold also creeps up from below, so it is best to avoid cold feet. In the winter (actually also when it is wet and miserable during other months) I wear woolen kneelenght hose, needlebound socks and leather turnshoes which I have oiled/waxed well. Medieval winter shoes are bootlike ones that cover the ankles, but as well as using those, I often go for a regular pair of lowcut turnshoes that are just slightly too big – which means I can fit in a lot of layers: hose (sometimes double hose!) and socks. Someday I think it would be cool to experiment with footwraps made of wool scraps ala Bocksten man.

However, especially if you are not doing anything particularly active and need to stand still, the cold still gets to you. This is because medieval leather shoes have those thin leather soles. This is why I like to wear wooden pattens: they provide the extra insulation. I wouldn’t go on a hike with those on though: pattens that have snow stuck on the soles are super super slippery and quite tricky to walk in.

What about in between?

Keeping your head and feet warm gets you a long way, but come those really cold temperatures, it is good to be able to add something on even between your head and your toes. I usually go for an extra layer – another overdress, preferably a loose one made of thick wool, lined in wool. I do have cloaks too, but they are really not that much use. It is hard to do anything active in them, the cold creeps in when they flap open… sigh. The only reason I have a cloak is because they are fashionable! If I need to do stuff besides look good (hahahaa) I ditch the cloak and grab another dress.

On my hands: wool needlebound mittens. Nothing beats them.

And finally, the most aggravating thing about dealing with winter in the middle ages: snow on hems! When the snow melts, you smell like a wet sheep. And there is nothing, nothing that quite wakes you up like a piece of snowy and frozen wool that slaps you in the buttock when you visit the outhouse in the morning.

Depending on how much snow there is, there is not much you can do about it. You can hike up hems with your belt (so you get an attractive wool roll on your waist) – but you can do that only so much, because the long hems keep out the draft and provide the insulation that keep you warm under the hems . So you don’t need to go for long johns or thermal underwear. Because, besidest the obvious reasons you want to not wear thermals, try outhouse+hoisting 10 meters of wet wool hems + lacking third arm to deal with thermals = aaaargh.

When it comes to medieval undies, I find that it is extra important in the winter to keep your shirt/shift so short that it doesn’t catch on any snow (I like mine about calf-lenght). This is because linen sucks up moisture and sends it upwards for a cool and damp experience, almost like nothing else.

How about you dear reader? Any tips on how to deal with extreme weather?

This is great information. I’ve always wondered precisely which areas of the costume are most critical for making a winter-proof costume. I suspect that here, having much milder but damper weather, a little may need to be adapted, but it is still very useful information for anyone thinking about making their costume that bit more real and useful.

You’re right about cloaks, by the way. I had a very nice one my mother helped me make, and it did nothing to keep me warm. Layers are best anyway–the air trapped between them helps to retain body heat also.

Having been involved in living history for so long, my first thought was that the hems covered in snow wouldn’t be smacking you in the buttock if you just used the chamber pot first thing *L* Our modern sanitation sensibilities create some problems that a medieval person wouldn’t have, but I am happy to have modern conveniences when I need them. Especially the modern heated outhouses at sites that provide them, so one can defrost ;-)

Shorter hems on the inner most layer make a lot of sense! What helps us stay cool in the summer (linen wicking moisture) isn’t such a great thing in winter! Keep up the wonderful posts!